Tag: Origins

Resource Review: Genetic Entropy

We are constantly told that evolution can build the genome over time, through chance mutations favored by natural selection. But what if this claim is false? What if the genome is not improving? What if, instead, it is actually degrading over time? Further, what if the scientific community has known this for decades and refuses to acknowledge it because of the damage it would do to evolution? Welcome to the premise of Dr. John Sanford’s book, Genetic Entropy. In the book, Sanford, a former evolutionist and emeritus professor at Cornell University looks at whether evolution, the “primary axiom” as he terms it, can work, using population genetics.

Does Everything Have to be a Species?

Evolution determines ancestry by reference to a phylogenetic tree. Phylogenetic trees are built based on homologous traits. Homology refers to similarity in the traits. Therefore, in the evolutionary view, gross overall similarity, in either genetics or morphology, is determining ancestry. This idea matters for our discussion because speciation, in an ultimate sense, is a question of ancestry. Many species concepts appeal in some sense or another to a most recent common ancestor.

Darwin's Finches

Essential Nature Baraminology

The argument presented by Joubert is fairly straightforward. He argues that the original kinds possessed what he called an “essential nature”. This nature is built into the original kinds, and was the force that held the various characteristics of the kind together into a coherent whole. He further argues that, since the nature was built into the kinds from the beginning, it has not changed. Therefore, we should be able to determine kinds by looking at their essential natures.